A high resolution time delay estimation technique in frequency domain for positioning system

A high resolution time delay estimation technique for network based positioning systems is proposed. To overcome the resolution limitation of conventional correlation method, the proposed method uses high resolution frequency estimation algorithms with several preprocessing modules. To prevent deconvolved signal from diverging over some ranges of frequencies, Wiener deconvolution module is adopted. Also, to precisely separate multipaths closely delayed in time domain, a bandpass filtering module with a center frequency corresponding to coarsely acquired delay time from correlator is adopted. Through the computer simulation using MUSIC and ESPRIT as sinusoidal frequency estimation algorithms, we showed that the proposed method can separate two multipaths within one chip period and reduce delay estimation errors caused by multipaths.